Modular jack housings are well known in the art. Most residential and commercial buildings contain typical RJ11-type jack housings for connecting a telephone or other similar device to a telephone line.
In a residential setting, telephone lines are installed throughout the home and are terminated at the wall surface in a line plug which is installed in a modular jack housing. At the wall surface, the modular jack housing is installed in a wall plate, generally mounted to a box. The modular jack housing is configured to receive a line plug, generally a type 645 line plug. Most telephone connection cords sold today comprise a multi-conductor wire with a plug at each end, such as an RJ11 plug. One plug is inserted in the telephone, answering machine or other device, and the other plug is inserted in the modular jack housing at the wall. The user simply plugs a line into the modular jack housing in order to make an electrical connection with the terminated telephone line.
In a commercial setting, telephone lines are installed throughout the building and terminated at a central location, such as a building entrance protector, junction box or cross-connect field. A typical building entrance protector may be 27 inches tall, with a fixed number of openings for receiving and mounting a number of modular jack housings on a mounting surface which is attached to or within the junction box. In a typical commercial building, there may be hundreds of modular jack housings to be installed. Accordingly, numerous junction boxes are installed to accommodate the many modular jack housings, thus occupying a significant amount of space.
Referring to FIG. 1, the prior art jack housing 1 comprises a space for receiving an installed multiconductor 645-type telephone line plug 34, a plug receiving space 13, a fixed tab 22, and a latch 15. When the user inserts the plug 12 into the jack housing receiving space 13, an electrical connection is established between the leads 50 of the modular plug 12 and the spring leads 30 of the installed line plug 34. The plug 12 comprises a movable plug latch stem 14. The jack housing 1 contains a corresponding plug latch receiving space 36 to accept the movable plug latch stem 14. The plug latch also has plug latch retaining tabs 26 for maintaining the modular plug 12 within the jack housing receiving space 13. The latch stem 14 is movable so that the user can move the stem out of engagement with housing and remove the plug 12 from the jack housing receiving space 13 and thereby terminate the electrical connection. The industry standard RJ11 plug latch stem 14 is formed at the opposite side of the plug body 12 from the leads 50. The same general configuration applies to RJ45-type plugs and jack housings.
A typical means for mounting a jack housing 1 in a mounting surface 24 comprises a fixed tab 22 at the bottom end of the housing 1 and a latch 15 with a latch tab 18 at the top end of the housing 1. The user inserts the jack housing 1 into an opening of a mounting surface 24 and engages the fixed tab 22. The jack housing 1 is wider than the opening in the mounting surface 24 to maintain the jack housing 1 within the mounting surface 24 by abutment of the width against one side of the mounting surface. The user then tilts the jack housing 1 forward and the latch tab 18 bends downward towards a jack housing body top surface 38 as it passes within the opening, until the latch tab 18 passes the front edge of the mounting surface 24, whereupon the latch tab 18 snaps back upward, for abutment with the other side of the mounting surface. The jack housing 1 is then mounted to the mounting surface 24.
Because it is necessary to bend the latch 15 to install and remove the jack housing 1 in a mounting surface 24, a space is needed between the jack housing body top surface 38 and the bottom of the latch tab 15. In the prior art jack housing, this bending space was provided at a point above where the plug 12 was inserted into the jack housing receiving space 13. That is, the jack housing body top surface 38 is above the plug latch receiving space 36. Therefore, the typical jack housing body 1 has a wall, generally depicted as 40, extending vertically between the plug latch receiving space 36 and the bottom of the latch 15. Wall 40 is essentially wasted space which makes the jack housing larger than necessary, as is the space below the 645 line plug.
In other prior art embodiments (not shown) the mounting features are located on the side of the housing where the plug receiving space is located, to facilitate flush mounting. These embodiments suffer from the same shortcomings as discussed above, with wasted space above the plug receiving space and below the line plug.
Because the number of phone lines required to service customer demand is increasing daily as a result of multiple computer networks, modems, facsimile machines and the like, and since only a fixed number of modular jack housings can fit into a junction box, the size of the jack housings becomes a limiting factor as more and more phone lines need to be installed.
The present invention is directed at overcoming the shortcomings in the prior art.